Investigation: Sudan Army Commits Mass Executions in Captured Territories
POWs shot, ethnic minorities targeted in new wave of war crimes
In Brief
Sudan’s army and a regional paramilitary (the RSF) that mutinied in 2023 have waged a two-year civil war marked by ever-increasing brutality. This has created the world’s largest humanitarian disaster and displacement crisis.
International humanitarian laws and rules of war have been flaunted throughout the conflict. In an effort to promote accountability and raise awareness of the cost and dangers of this conflict, Sudan War Monitor has published investigations about war crimes perpetrated by both sides. This particular article addresses a pattern of crimes perpetrated by the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF). We are an independent group of journalists and open source researchers unaffiliated with either side in the conflict.
Content Advisory: This article contains descriptions of graphic violence.
Systematic and Widespread
As the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) advanced in central Sudan, including in the capital Khartoum, it carried out executions against both prisoners of war and civilians suspected of collaborating with the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
SAF soldiers and proxy forces also rounded up and killed people simply for belonging to certain minority ethnic groups, particularly Darfuris, Nuba, and South Sudanese, whom SAF propagandists have portrayed as enemies of the state.
War crimes of this kind have taken place since the beginning of the war, but the number of victims has increased recently as large amounts of territory have changed hands. Over the past three months, these executions have taken place in three waves:
Wad Madani and Surroundings: January 2025
Khartoum Bahri and East Nile: February to early March 2025
Khartoum: Late March 2025 - Early April 2025
Visual evidence of these executions has emerged, including cases where SAF soldiers or proxy forces mutilated the bodies of the victims after death.
Combatants themselves filmed these crimes, posting incriminating videos in chat groups or on social media as a way boasting of their actions. Others incidents were filmed by bystanders. The perpetrators include SAF soldiers acting individually or in groups, as well as members of other security forces, and members of two irregular proxy groups: the Sudan Shield Forces and the Al-Baraa Bin Malik Brigade.
Beheading Incidents
In the latest known incident, Sudanese army troops dragged an injured man through the street and into a ditch before shooting him many times. Then a soldier took out a long knife and beheaded him, cheered on by his fellow soldiers, according to a video of the incident filmed by a SAF combatant. The victim was wearing civilian clothes, though he may have been an RSF combatant who had been wounded in earlier fighting. He was wearing a bandage and an external fixator on his leg, which is a metal medical device used to help stabilize broken bones.
This incident took place in the Omdurman suburb of Ombada 16. We estimate the date of filming to be 25 March 2025, based on reported SAF advances into Ombada 16 on that day. The perpetrators were wearing SAF uniforms and likely belonged to a unit nicknamed “Cobra,” which operated previously in the Kadroo area under the commander of Brigadier General Othman Ibrahim Katla.
This is second beheading that we have verified, following the beheading of two civilians last year. After that incident, the Sudanese army claimed it would investigate, but no subsequent actions or arrests were announced in connection with the inquiry.
Sudanese national law, specifically the Criminal Act of 1991, does not explicitly address the desecration or mutilation of dead bodies in the context of war. However, Sudan is a signatory to international humanitarian laws that prohibit such actions. Additionally, in an Islamic context like Sudan, mutilating a dead body—whether through beheading or any other way—is generally considered haram (forbidden). Islamic teachings dictate respectful burial for the dead, even enemy combatants.
Despite this, disrespectful treatment of the dead has been disturbingly commonplace throughout the war. Thus far Sudan War Monitor can confirm two known incidents of beheadings (with three victims total), one case of disemboweling, two cases were bodies were hung upside down and half-naked in a public square, and several incidents where victims were shot or disposed of in the river.
These cases suggest a broader pattern of disrespecting the dead and mutilating bodies, which has become accepted and popularized among army troops. On videos, army soldiers sometimes brandish daggers, gesturing to cut the throats of their enemies, and they have shown off the skulls of RSF combatants kept as trophies.
Public Execution in East Khartoum
The beheading in Omdurman is part of a larger pattern of arrests and extrajudicial executions over the past few weeks in Khartoum State — which is likely still ongoing — after the RSF carried out a chaotic retreat, leaving behind some fighters who were surrounded. Reports are also emerging of mass arrests of certain ethnic minorities, including South Sudanese, following a pattern seen elsewhere.
The full death toll to-date is unknown.
In one verified incident, a man in civilian clothes was executed publicly in eastern Khartoum on 60th Street, an area recaptured by the Sudanese Armed Forces just days ago. Video geolocated by Sudan War Monitor shows a large crowd cheering as the captive is paraded across the street before being shot by a SAF soldier in front of a cafe. Numerous small children were in the crowd when the man was shot in front of them. Frightened children are seen crouching and running as the gunshots ring out.
In another incident, SAF soldiers took a group of six captives — presumed to be ex-combatants or suspected collaborators — and executed them in the Nile. Due to a lack of easily identifiable landmarks, we are still working to geolocate this video (“Video 3” below), but we suspect that it was filmed near Jebel Aulia, a city just south of Khartoum. It was posted online on 27 May 2025, the day SAF captured Jebel Aulia.
Additional videos of mass arrests have emerged, which Sudan War Monitor is still in the process of verifying and analyzing. In total, it appears thousands have been arrested throughout the capital region following SAF’s takeover, while other captives, who were held by the RSF, have been freed. Both sides have detained thousands of civilians without trial on suspicions of supporting the other side in the conflict.
Minorities Targeted in East Nile and Bahri
An earlier wave of killings took place during SAF offensives in northern and eastern Khartoum State, beginning with incident near Al-Jaili in January, continuing after SAF took over Khartoum Bahri in February, and culminating in East Nile in early March.
The UN Human Rights Office, which investigated the killings in Al-Jaili, reported that it had verified 18 victims, including one woman, who were killed in seven separate incidents, attributed to SAF-affiliated fighters and militia. “Many of the victims of these incidents, which took place in the vicinity the Al Jaili oil refinery, were originally from the Darfur or Kordofan regions of Sudan,” OHCHR noted in a statement.
Executions in Khartoum
UN OHCR subsequently issued another statement, April 3, 2025, condemning “reports of widespread extrajudicial killings of civilians in Khartoum following its recapture by the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) on 26 March.”
“The UN Human Rights Office has reviewed multiple horrific videos posted on social media since 26 March, all of them apparently filmed in southern and eastern Khartoum. They show armed men – some in uniform and others in civilian clothes – executing civilians in cold blood, often in public settings. In some videos, perpetrators state that they are punishing supporters of RSF.”
“Reports have attributed the killings to SAF and State security personnel, as well as to SAF-affiliated militias and fighters. In the Janoub Al Hezam area of southern Khartoum, for instance, at least 20 civilians, including one woman, were allegedly killed by SAF and affiliated militias and fighters.”
The statement furthermore noted that some of the killings were ethnically targeted, referring to “a disturbing rise in online hate speech and incitement to violence, with lists of individuals accused of collaborating with the RSF posted online. Ethnic groups from the Darfur and Kordofan regions appear to be disproportionately targeted.”
POWs and Minorities Shot in Wad Madani
The third wave of killings, which has already been reported elsewhere, including by The Washington Post and Human Rights Watch, took place in Al-Jazira State in and around the capital Wad Madani, following a successful SAF offensive.
The victims included prisoners of war, ethnic minorities (including Kanabi and South Sudanese), and alleged collaborators. Using a mix of open source and journalistic methods – and building on the work of other researchers and journalists – we have tallied approximately 200 confirmed or probable deaths of civilians or suspected ex-combatants, who were not armed or in uniform at the time of their deaths.
The full death toll is likely much higher, because the videos and sources point to a broader pattern of ethnic killings, not all of which were necessarily filmed or witnessed. This makes the Wad Madani Massacre larger than the massacres carried out by the RSF and affiliated militias at several villages in West Darfur in 2023 (for example, in SIRBA), though not as deadly as the El Geneina/Ardamata massacres, in which at least 1,000 people were estimated to have been killed.
We include in this tally 26 victims killed in Tayba Camp, east of Wad Madani, in an attack by the Sudan Shield Forces, which was documented by Human Rights Watch. Other incidents were investigated by Centre for Information Resilience, a U.K.-based OSINT group, including both arrests and mistreatment of civilians, and killings.
Perhaps the highest casualty event in Wad Madani took place at the Wad Kanan street junction, 4.5km northwest of Wad Madani city centre, where dozens of men in civilian clothes were gathered and shot on 15 January 2025. Two videos from the scene reviewed by Sudan War Monitor show approximately 65 bodies, with SAF soldiers standing over them, looking at the bodies and insulting them with slurs.
Graphic Content Warning
⚠️ The following section contains videos depicting various kinds of graphic violence. Viewer discretion is strongly advised. Exposure to such material can have psychological effects, including desensitization to violence, increased anxiety, and potential trauma. Please be mindful of your mental well-being before engaging with this material.
Written descriptions are provided as an alternative to viewing these materials.
Incident Summary List and Videos
In compiling this report, we considered three types of evidence:
Videos that were geolocated and chronolocated (verified date and time).
Videos with unverified date or time but having other indicators of authenticity, allowing for a reasonable approximation of the context in which they occurred.
Reports and investigations by other journalism organizations and human rights groups, which included non-visual evidence such as witness statements.
The following list summarizes the incidents described above, among others, and includes videos pertaining to several of the incidents.
Execution and Beheading in Ombada
Location: Ombada 16, Western Omdurman (15.6205916, 32.4436928)
Identified Perpetrators: SAF (“Cobra” Unit)
Date: 25 March 2025
Number of Victims: 1
Incident Description: Soldiers dragged a wounded ex-combatant through the street and shot him in a ditch (1:28). The video cuts to later, as a soldier with a knife finishes beheading the victim (blurred but still disturbing). Comrades cheer as he holds up the severed head.
Associated Video:
Public Execution on 60th Street
Location: Al-Jereif West, Khartoum ADD GEOLOCATION DIGITS HERE
Identified Perpetrators: SAF
Date: 26 or 27 March 2025.
Number of Victims: 1
Incident Description: A crowd marches a civilian across the street, cheering and beating him. A soldier then shoots him off-camera, startling the crowd. Some bystanders appear shocked while others celebrate.
Associated Video:
Blindfolded captives shot in the Nile
Location: Jebel Aulia [unconfirmed]
Identified Perpetrators: Civilian clothes; presumed SAF proxy forces
Date: ~ 27 May 2025
Number of Victims: 6
Brief Description: Gunmen affiliated with SAF but wearing civilian clothes shot six blindfolded men in the river.
Associated Video:
Ethnic minorities targeted in Al-Jaili
Location:
Identified Perpetrators:
Source: UN Human Rights Office Investigation
Date:
Number of Victims:
Tayba Village Massacre
Location: East of Wad Madani, Al-Jazira State
Identified Perpetrators: Sudan Shield Forces
Source: Human Rights Watch
Date: 10 January 2025
Incident Description: An armed group affiliated with SAF attacked Tayba village in Gezira state, killing least 26 people, including a child, and injuring more. The group also systematically looted civilian property, including food supplies, and set fire to houses.
Number of Victims: 26
Wad Kanan Street Massacre
Location: Wad Madani (14.416900, 33.486720)
Identified Perpetrators: SAF
Date: ~13-15 January 2025
Number of Victims: Approximately 65
Incident Description: Civilians were shot at a main junction in Wad Madani shortly after the SAF takeover of the city. SAF officers and soldiers were filmed at the scene gloating over the corpses. All were wearing civilian clothes and it is unclear if they were civilians or combatants hors de combats.
Associated Videos:
Hantoub Bridge Incident
Location: Wad Madani
Identified Perpetrators: Al-Baraa Bin Malik Brigade
Date: 13 January 2025
Number of Victims: 1
Incident Description: Members of the Al-Baraa bin Malik Brigade and other SAF-allied groups threw a young man off a bridge into the Blue Nile and shot him in the water.
Teenage Boys and Youths Slaughtered
Location: Wad Madani (video is not geolocatable but location is presumed based on contextual factors and date of publication)
Identified Perpetrators: SAF or Sudan Shield
Date: Mid-January 2025
Number of Victims: 7
Brief Description: Perpetrator films dying teenagers and youths whose throats were cut. Video is heavily blurred and audio has been removed due to disturbing sounds of suffocation.
Associated Videos:
Executions in Wad Madani neighborhoods
Additional videos and incidents may be added to this list as we compile more evidence.
Incredible reporting
Thank you.